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I'm debating the color for my next car which will hopefully be a 991.2 GT3. I love black cars, but have stayed away from them due to the upkeep needed. When they're clean they are gorgeous, but it takes a lot of work to keep them that way. Has anyone done a full protective wrap on theirs to comment on upkeep? Does it still get just as dirty? That is to say does it show as much? Since the wrap protects it, are swirl marks and scratches for the most part a non-issue? Or is it just business as usual with paint protection?
I think the best you can do is:
1: Paint correction;
2: Suntec or Xpel, and
3: ceramic coating over everything.
The car will still show the same amount of dirt, but it will be much better protected this way and should be a little easier to keep clean.
This^^^.
I had a Jet Black GT4 which I had corrected, xpelled and coated. B/w the xpel and coating (in this case OptiPro+) it's easy to clean. I just used Griots Spray Car Wash and then Speed Shine. Generally it took 30 minutes to get it gleaming. Never needed wax of course.
Have you thought about XPel Stealth? Have it on my GTS and like very much. Would be awesome on a GT3 and certainly make it stand out. My cat is a doddle to clean now and completely swirl proof, which is a joy.
I have a black 12 997 cab and covered it with Suntek about 5 years ago. Putting paint protection film on a car is like putting a new clear coat on, no swirls anywhere to this day. No need to do a paint correction, the film will hide existing swirls and fine scratches
My entire car is wrapped sans the doors. Black shows dirt, not anyway to get away from it. I think that when it is clean, sealed and polished nothing comes close to black. The price you pay is that it does not look this way often if you drive it. Best advice is keep it out of the sun.
I have black with Expel on front clip and total car coated in Opti Pro.
Wheels/barrels coated also. Very easy to keep clean. Just spray with soap, rinse, and blow dry so no swirls. If you buy black budget another $2000 for protection.
Saytun - I had the SunTec installed on the whole front of the car, it was great, rest of the car was horrible, all swirled, I had it re polished and cut from Porsche, went and had rest of the car covered. NO ISSUES, no swirls, or scratch marks. still gets dusty but cleaning it quick. Best thing for any black car.
Great feedback here, protective film technologies has improved so much that with the proper installation you can achieve protection without compromising the look of the car. This with the added benefit of "self healing" properties means that light imperfections which as we all know are very easy to get with black finishes are less of a worry.
The installation itself is more important than the brand of film choice, always look into the installation company and see work in person before making a decision, I made a whole thread on what to look for, located here:
Here is an example of a GT4 FULLY WRAPPED in our signature ClearGuard Nano film with our best in class "Custom Installation, this means all corners and edges are wrapped were possible, with little to no distortions in the film application: